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Editors' Choice Awards 2005

When he's not writing for LJ, Ludovic Marcotte is
architecting big enterprise IT projects, including
last year's 35,500-user mail project at the Canadian
business school HEC Montréal. He chose IBM eServer
xSeries x305 and x335 servers for the project
and recommends the server line for Editors' Choice.
Systems are available in all sizes from blades up to
a 32-way xSeries 445.

Figure 1. Each box in this enterprise mail project is
an IBM eServer xSeries system.

Figure 2. This IBM eServer 336 is the new model in the eServer xSeries,
replacing the discontinued x305 and x335 mentioned in last
year's article.

Personal Computer or Workstation

Apple/Terra Soft PowerMac G5

Robert Love writes, “Fast, beautiful and it even
runs Linux.” Don't forget “quiet”. With fans
under software control, this box will run only
as loud as it needs to in order to stay cool.
The idea is as simple as a thermostat, and we're
surprised more manufacturers don't do it. Terra Soft
Solutions sells the G5 with Linux pre-installed,
including the driver for the fans. Based on the
POWER architecture and the PCI-X bus, this system's
other features include Gigabit Ethernet, serial ATA
and two FireWire interfaces.

Figure 3. Terra Soft pre-loads this Apple G5
with Linux.

Security Tool

Max Moser and Contributors,
Auditor Security Collection

Mick Bauer calls this Knoppix-based bootable
distribution, “the best one for network scanning,
particularly wireless and bluetooth scanning.”
He adds, “If you need to validate
the security of your networked systems periodically, or even
if you perform security assessments for a living,
Auditor provides most of what you need to do the job,
especially if you don't want to dedicate hardware
for the purpose.” You don't need to set up a disk
partition or, worse, transfer sensitive data over
the network. Use a USB drive or some other removable
media to take your security data out and take it
with you.

Honorable mention goes to OpenSSH. Paul Barry
writes, “It really comes into its own when I combine
it with one of those bootable/live Linux CD distros
(I use Morphix). When supervising student lab
sessions, I can pop Morphix into any PC on campus,
reboot into Morphix, open up a terminal, do an ssh
-C -X -l barryp to my main office desktop and keep
working. All my apps and my environment are right
there with me. And, of course, my traffic is nicely
encrypted, so any students running sniffers can't
see what's going on.”

Web Browser or Client

The Mozilla Organization,
Firefox

Robert says, “Firefox isn't just a great browser,
it is a great example of doing a cross-platform
project that everyone, on every platform, loves.”
You can tell when hackers love something by the volume
of tweaks, add-ons and extensions. Nigel McFarlane
covered configuration hints in the April 2005 issue, and
watch for more on our favorite Firefox extensions
coming up soon.

Thanks to Firefox, the Mozilla Organization dethroned
Microsoft as the number-one browser source for
linuxjournal.com readers too. Mozilla browsers,
not counting old proprietary Netscape, rose from 28.1%
to 44.4% since last year.

Graphics Software

inkscape.org, Inkscape

Ludovic writes, “I always missed a good tool
like Corel DRAW on Linux, but I think Inkscape is
one truly great scalable vector graphics editor.”
Vector graphics aren't only for print these days—with users' browsers ranging in size from mobile
devices to multi-monitor desktops, you're going to
need graphics that look good at a variety of sizes
no matter what you use them for.

Figure 4. Inkscape lets us zoom way in on this SVG penguin,
drawn by Nicu Buculei for OpenClipart based on Larry Ewing's
original design. Look, Tux, no jagged pixels!

Communication Tool

Ryan Boren, Matthew Mullenweg and Contributors,
WordPress 1.5

Reuven Lerner writes, “After trying different Weblog
software (in my column, on my server and on my
desktop machine), I chose to go with WordPress for
my own work, as well as to recommend it to others.
The release of WordPress 1.5 several months ago
demonstrated that the project has reached maturity.
Not only is the code solid, but it's easy to install,
easy to use, has a plugin architecture that's simple
to work with and can be extended in a number of
different ways by programmers and non-programmers
alike.”

We're seeing more and more WordPress blogs—especially from smart people who aren't full-time
Webmasters and just want to get a virtual host,
drop in a blog package and go.

Desktop Software

Novell Evolution

Call it a mail and calendar program or a “groupware
client”, this software plugs you in to collaboration
with your coworkers, even if they're still running a
legacy mail server. Evolution saved Paul Barry from
having to switch desktop environments. He writes,
“I hadn't looked at it until work recently made
the move to Microsoft Exchange and 'gently forced'
everyone to get their e-mail through the truly
awful 'Outlook Web Access'. I opened up Evolution,
pointed it at the Exchange server and kept on using
my preferred working environment: Linux.”
For keeping your Linux desktop afloat in a sea of proprietary
jibber-jabber, we salute you.

Our runner-up in the desktop category is GnuCash.
Reuven writes, “Accounting software doesn't have the
flash or appeal of many other desktop applications.
Moreover, it has an even greater responsibility to
get everything perfectly right. And the ability to
create your own reports, record regular transactions
and synchronize your accounts with OCX files from
your bank makes it even more useful.” As a bonus,
the documentation provides a non-accountant's friendly
intro to how double-entry bookkeeping works.

Language

C# Language Design Team and The Mono Project, C#

Robert writes, “Finally, a usable, fun,
rapid-development-yet-powerful language for
Linux, with excellent GNOME and Gtk bindings.”
You can tell a good language by one simple test:
do people write great original software in it?
For C#, the answer is yes, as you'll learn from a
quick Beagle demo. Beagle, written in C#, is “a
GNOME-based search infrastructure that ransacks your
personal information space to index and
find whatever you are looking for instantly”, Robert writes.
While you work, it watches you and comes up with
relevant and potentially helpful information. And it
provides a counterexample that will help you put
the tired “open-source desktop software only copies
proprietary apps” argument to rest.

Software Library or Module

Simon Cozens and Sebastian Riedel,
Maypole

Don't give yourself a repetitive strain injury
pounding out thousands of lines of scripting language,
HTML and SQL to create a Web app. You'll only have
to maintain it later.

Paul Barry did it smarter for our March 2005 issue—in
18 lines, thanks to Maypole. And others are catching
on too. “I've had a number of readers contact me
via e-mail with queries about my '18 lines of code'
article. They are all new to Perl but are still
willing to give Maypole a go, which is a great sign”,
he writes, and adds, “I think Jerry Pournelle (from
BYTE magazine) used to have a saying for stuff like
this: infuriatingly excellent.”

Database

PostgreSQL Global Development Group, PostgreSQL 8.0

More and more organizations are working with high-end
database systems but can't afford, or don't want, a
full-time database administrator. PostgreSQL complies
with SQL standards but needs less babysitting than
complicated legacy databases. Ludovic calls it,
“easy to install, configure and relatively easy to
tune for performance.” In our June 2005 issue, he covered
Slony-I, which adds replication to PostgreSQL, giving
you multisite redundancy, increased performance
or both. Reuven points out that PostgreSQL has
programmer-friendly features, which for 8.0, include
server-side scripting in Perl.

Paul Barry is happy with the Ubuntu distribution, and
one reason is this “embarrassingly easy-to-use” tool
for installing software and keeping it up to date.
Click what you like, and synaptic will install it with
all dependencies—even browse the documentation so
you know what you're getting. More info in our Ubuntu
review on page XX.

Mobile Device

IBM and EmperorLinux, IBM ThinkPad T series/EmperorLinux
Toucan

Ludovic Marcotte praises this system for its
“excellent level of compatibility with various Linux
distributions” including Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise
Linux and Ubuntu. Several Linux Journal editors
are happily using these, and all the features work
under Linux. We're all about ThinkPad keyboards.

The ThinkPad line still lags the market leaders in one
key area, though: availability with Linux pre-installed.
After success with Linux on the nx5000 laptop, HP
now offers Linux across the board—but not listed
on the Web site. You have to call and order it via
“Factory Express”.

This will be the last year that IBM is eligible for
this award, as it has sold off the ThinkPad business
to Lenovo. Maybe the brand's new owner will be more
accommodating with the Linux preloads.

Figure 5. Mick Bauer won't put security tools on a critical server—he
carries them to the job site on an IBM ThinkPad or a bootable CD, and
removes them when
he's done.

Game or Entertainment Software

Jasmin F. Patry and Contributors,
TuxRacer

With more than a million downloads and a stack of
awards on the home page, this game doesn't need yet
another one. But we're going to give it anyway.
Flop on the ice and race to grab all the fish you can
in this easy-to-learn game that your little penguins
can play too.

This is the first GPL game to be released in an arcade
version. Innovative Concepts in Entertainment calls
their 400-pound cabinet a “Dazzling children's racer
with adorable penguin character.”

Development Book

George Schlossnagle
Advanced PHP Programming

Reuven writes, “This is not a simple 'here is how
to write a Web application' book, but rather a book
that teaches you how to think about Web applications
before you deploy them. He doesn't just tell you
that you should tune your database for the Web—he
shows you design patterns for talking to the database
server, so as to structure your code more readably
and efficiently. He doesn't just tell you that
authentication is important—he gives strategies
for checking that the user hasn't been switched out
from under you. Even if you don't program in PHP,
this book is worth reading.”

Figure 6. Think before you
clobber your database server. Read
this book to learn to develop efficient, maintainable Web
applications.

Ludovic writes, “Finally a good book on SAN.”
This 432-page hardcover is full of storage network
examples, including InfiniBand, and is well illustrated.
The book is on the expensive side, but compared to
SAN mistakes, it's a bargain.

Figure 7. Before you step up to a big iron
storage system, step up to this big hardcover storage book.

End-User or Nontechnical Book

Paul Graham,
Hackers & Painters

We started visiting paulgraham.com for the
spam-fighting ideas, then came back for his
other writing about hacking, business and culture.
Now a collection of his essays is out in hardcover.
Why do smart people tend to be “nerds” in high school?
What business ideas did the dot-com bubble get right?
And, perhaps most important, what should you look
for in a programming language?

Technical Web Site

Eklektix, Inc.,
LWN

LWN wins again. At first glance, it looks like just another
“meta-news” site with links to articles on the Web,
Slashdot-style layout and comments. But look again.
The clean layout is unpolluted by the annoying Macromedia
Flash ads found on some Linux sites we could name, and
comments come in from “subscriber gregkh” (kernel guru
Greg Kroah-Hartman) and others who actually write the
software we're all chattering about. LWN editor Jonathan
Corbet helped plan the 2004 Kernel Summit, and LWN's
coverage of the event was a must for anyone who needs
to keep up with the kernel.

Nontechnical or Community Web Site

Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia

Robert Love calls Wikipedia, “probably the single
greatest thing on Earth.” It's hard to comprehend an
encyclopedia with 1.5 million articles and editions
in 195 languages, so just visit the site and click
“random page”. One visit yielded a history of
Kincheloe, Michigan; an unfinished “stub” article
about a political party in Suriname; a biographical
entry on Admiral Walter F. Doran, Commander of the
US Pacific Fleet; and the ingredients and history
of mortadella.

Why doesn't Wikipedia get cluttered up with flaming,
drivel and spam like other on-line fora? Part of
the answer has to be in the Wiki philosophy, where
anyone can “edit this page” and put problems right,
and part of the credit has to go to the MediaWiki
software, which makes it easy for helpful people to
find and fix vandalism.

Project of the Year

freedesktop.org

On the Internet, any movement looks like a big
argument. But forget all the arguing over K this
and G that, and get plugged in to the grand unified
master plan to clean up the ragged legacies of UNIX,
advance the X Window System to keep up with leaps in
hardware and put a secure, friendly GUI everywhere.

The list of hosted projects includes D-BUS, X.org
and all the hard-to-get-right infrastructure such as
vector graphics, fonts and internationalization.

Marco Fioretti wrote in our May 2005 issue, “If
protocols and formats stop being tied to specific
implementations or toolkits, they can be shared across
multiple 'desktop environments'. Code stability
and lightness would directly benefit from this,
as would innovation. Completely new programs could
interact immediately with existing ones.”

Product of the Year

Ralink Technology Corp.,
RT2500 Chipset Solution

If binary-only 802.11g drivers are the rat dookie in
your raisin bread, get a card based on the RT2400
or RT2500 chipset and be happy. Instead of giving
other vendors grief over “take our word for it, it's
a raisin” drivers, we're going to celebrate a company
that gets it right. Ralink worked with Mark Wallis,
Ivo van Doorn, Luis Correia, Robin Cornelius and
others to get a supported driver out there under
the GPL.

Paul writes, “On my aging laptop, I popped in the
PCMCIA card, downloaded the source code and installed
the device driver into Fedora Core 3 and—about
two minutes later—joined the wireless revolution!”
Special thanks to Minitar, the network gear vendor
with the foresight to ask Ralink to make the driver
GPL.